Maybe it’s not the tuna, maybe it’s the HFCS (ooops, I meant “corn sugar”)

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I think it’s worth taking a fresh look at the issue of mercury contaminating some of the high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) we process in this country, because it reflects on so many different threads running through our collective consciousness.

Here’s the article; it draws its content from a study by the very respectable Environmental Working Group in 2008. Their research scientists found that just about 45 percent of the foods containing HFCS that they sampled were contaminated with mercury. Continue reading →

Broth, wonderful broth (with recipe)!

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As an ardent cook and card-carrying member of the Weston A. Price Foundation (well, OK, so they don’t have cards…but if they did, I’d wear it on my sleeve), I’m sold on broth as one of the foundations of my kitchen.

Howzat, you say? You mean the stuff in cans or aseptic packages at the store? Or you mean the little cubes you dissolve in boiling water?

No, no, no. I mean the long-simmered, fragrant, nutrient-packed, digestion-enhancing kind you make yourself. From bones. Nothing adds flavor or nutrition to a meal more quickly than good broth. And it’s one of the easiest things to make, too. The internet is just lousy with broth recipes, and some of them are good, too. And I’m going to add one more, right here, right now. Continue reading →

Cooking the talk (mid-January): Basic vegetable recipe

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No photos this time, sorry – it was cold and we were hungry!!! I’ll take some photos tonight and do a second post.

Last night, we had:

  • Wild salmon (frozen, from Janae’s at the farmer’s market)
  • Broccoli/carrot/onion/parsnip (various sources, all FM except the broccoli which was Whole Foods)
  • Housemade green sauerkraut (a touch of caraway, new batch)
  • Flourless chocolate cake (Dagoba/Green & Black chocolate, Springhill butter, coconut sugar, farmer’s market eggs, arrowroot)

It was just lovely, and the main course took maybe half an hour. Even the cake took only about 20 minutes to mix up, so I put it in the oven around 5 so it would have time to cool nicely after baking, and we ate dinner about 7.

Easy basic vegetable sauté Continue reading →

Culturing buttermilk and other yummy things (including a handy tip)

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Buttermilk culture

When I was at the Weston A. Price conference last November in Dallas, I got a few of Cultures for Health‘s outstanding – and beautifully packaged – cultures. I’d gotten a couple of their sourdough cultures last year, and they were terrific. So I sprang for a buttermilk culture. I love buttermilk. I can never find it made from raw milk, so the idea of culturing my own yummy buttermilk from some good Organic Pastures or Clavarale Dairy milk – well, how could I possibly resist?

(By the way, nobody ever mentions the fact that one takes on a certain amount of responsibility when starting to play with renewable cultures.  Continue reading →

Revisiting the issue of mercury in fish (can I eat a tuna sandwich yet?)

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Tuna sandwich on a plate

Like many people, I’ve been concerned about consuming mercury in fish.

So I was fascinated to run across this report from Vital Choice providing some interesting clarification on the issue (it was originally posted a little over a year ago). As a born-again media skeptic, I’ve noted all too often that when the simplest (and usually most alarming) part of a health issue is presented, a new “common sense guideline” is born. Mercury in fish would seem to be a case in point. Pregnant women are encouraged to limit their consumption of many kinds of fish; and, in particular, tuna.

Here’s the overview: Continue reading →

Food Safety News loves Michael Taylor – me, not so much

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Scanning through my inbox this morning, I found a Food Safety News article of the author’s “naughty and nice” list for 2011. Given the mandate of the publication, it’s not too surprising that the list contains people who, in the author’s opinion, deserve mention – good or bad – concerning their support of the safety of our food supply, or their negative impact on it.

Just goes to show, I guess, how looking through the narrow lens of one topic can skew the results. Here’s the glowing review of “Mike” Taylor:

NICE
Mike Taylor, deputy Food and Drug Administration commissioner for food, is this administration’s go-to guy for information on the FDA’s implementation of the new Food Safety Modernization Act. Continue reading →

Cooking the talk (mid-December edition)

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I want you to know that I do cook the talk! So here's what was for dinner last night at our house (most ingredients from the farmer's market):

  • Bone-in New York steak (Dey Dey's Best Beef Ever)
  • Weiser Family Farms German Butterball potatoes, quartered, steamed, and finished in a mixture of lard and Pure Indian Foods ghee
  • Homemade red sauerkraut
  • Fennel (Givens Farms), braised in homemade turkey stock with some Springhill butter

Tonight? I'm marinating a small boneless beef chuck roast from Healthy Family Farms (red wine, crumbled bay leaf, freshly ground black pepper, and a splash of red wine vinegar, all organic). I'll be cooking some butternut squash to serve alongside (have not decided how yet, other than that it will include onions), some broccoli, and the last of the sauerkraut (green – time to make more!). I have some apples from last week's market that I need to use up, so looks like I'll be baking them for dessert. Continue reading →